I wait until his gaze returns to normal, and he glares at me. Once I know he’s paying attention, I poise Pierce above the etherium ring, driving it down hard to shatter the gods-given life link.
The monster screams.
Gods. Such a wonderful sound.
Now that he’s unable to link back to life using the etherium, I smile at the seething immortal.
“Tell me where the psychic bitch is.”
Del Mar's growl rumbles through my finger as he tries to fight, but he's still too weakened from the lingering effects of the nightshade root powder.
“Sent by good old Amadeus, were you?” He spits, choking slightly when I wiggle my finger to see him wince. “I will not tell you where my keeper?—”
“Don't, then,” I shrug nonchalantly. “Engela already told me where she is, anyway.”
He bares sharp teeth. “Engela would not know, that damned traitor. We entrusted her with nothing—she was far too weakand easy to manipulate. Wherever she says Natalya is, it's entirely wrong.”
“So she's not in Baltimore?”
I see the grimace slip through his attempted composure.
I nod. “Thanks for confirming that. Now, I have a question for you because as evil as you are, you're also clever. You know exactly what I am, and you know mine is the last face you'll see in this lifetime. Unless you want me to draw this out, answer me. How can a revenant outlive a failed purpose?”
In other words…how the hell can I stay with them?
He laughs harshly, but it comes out strangled. “You’re pathetic.”
“You know, I’ve always wanted to dissect an eye still attached to a functioning brain,” I say in a chatty tone, withdrawing the silver knife from his shoulder and poising it beside his eye as a warning.
Del Mar hisses. “For a revenant like you to draw out your failed, inferior existence, you would need the direct blessing of Galene, the goddess of life herself. Or perhaps if some other deity took pity on a creature like you?—”
He cuts off abruptly as he inhales, nostrils flaring. Then a hideously wet-sounding laugh rasps up his damaged throat, and his cloudy yellow eyes grow distant.
“I might’ve known. What an elegant reckoning.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demand.
Del Mar’s sneer is ugly. “This game the gods play, and your orchestrated existence. I’ve had enough of this. End me,telum.”
“I’m not done asking questions.”
“You are, for you shall get nothing more from me.And when your time comes soon enough, Sachar will judge you not by what you are but by what you have become. You shall rot for your crimes in the Beyond?—”
“Mycrimes?”
I hook my finger further into the hydra shifter’s neck, twisting until he screams. Then I lean down to meet his pale, inhuman gaze so he misses none of this.
“We’re both monsters, so spare me the holier-than-thou bullshit. I know whatyourcrimes are. Natalya may be the keeper, but you’re the brains. It was your fucking idea to send that troop of humans into the Nether—which means when you die in a few seconds, Sachar will judgeyoubased on every death of those innocents for generations. They say some punishments in the Beyond are brutal—far more brutal than I could do here and now.”
I smile again, slowly, savoring the pain and fear in his eyes.
“Still. A bitch can try. This is for any part you had in my Nightmare Prince’s torment over the years.”
I cut out his forked tongue as he screams.
“And this is for putting a fucking collar onmy mate.”
My anger builds as I shove his wriggling tongue down his throat, forcing him to choke on it. He starts to panic, coughing up more blood as he struggles to get air. I glare at him, pulling my finger from his neck as the rest of my long-pent-up vengeful fury roars in my ears.
